Establishment by 1726 | Home club Moulsey Hurst CC Last used 1806 | |
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County club Surrey (pre-county club) Hours Open today · Open 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hours Similar Hampton Court railway st, Sunbury Lock, Hampton Court Bridge, Molesey Boat Club, Claremont | ||
Moulsey Hurst is located in what is now West Molesey, Surrey on the south bank of the River Thames above Molesey Lock. It is one of England's oldest sporting venues and was used in the 18th and 19th centuries for cricket, prizefighting and other sports.
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The site can be reached from Hampton across the river by Hampton Ferry when it is running in the summer.
Sporting venue
When James VI and I became King of England in 1603, he brought his golf clubs with him and the first games of golf in England were played at Molesey, Westminster and Greenwich which were large open spaces adjacent to royal palaces.
This venue is considered to be one of the oldest used for organised cricket, along with other historical cricket greens, such as Mitcham Cricket Green. The earliest known use of the site for cricket was in 1723 for a game between Surrey and London. One of cricket's most famous paintings is Cricket at Moulsey Hurst, by Richard Wilson in 1780. The painting is owned by MCC and on display at Lord's.
It was the site of the now defunct Hurst Park horse race course. The 1872 Ordnance Survey map shows a race course marked Molesey Hurst in this position. The location of the cricket ground was probably in the centre of the racecourse, which was common practice in the 18th century. It was at this ground where the now modern-day East Molesey CC began, although the current ground now lies (albeit still on the bank of the River Thames) on Graburn Way, about a quarter of a mile further east and a short walk from Hampton Court Palace.
Molesey Hurst Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1907. The club disappeared at the onset of WW2.
Other sports and activities included ballooning, sprinting and archery.
Moulsey Hurst today
In 2004, Hurst Park Residents Association laid out a "heritage marker" close to the river, which contains a number of illustrations of the history and activities of the area.